The question of multicultural schools, like many other aspects of education, cannot be considered only in educational terms. Before beginning to consider what a multicultural school may be like, two crucial points must be understood: first, a decision in favor of multicultural schooling is a political decision, not an educational one; and second,…

The failure of the supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment to understand the rhetoric and world view of its opponents resulted in the defeat of the amendment. The opponents of the ERA had six arguments: women are not discriminated against; women will be drafted; protective labor laws will be eliminated; the ERA will destroy tradition regarding…

The paper reviews the legal basis for interagency collaboration in providing services to the handicapped, notes the rationale for such an approach, and examines the obstacles encountered in an interagency intervention project for emotionally disturbed children and adolescents. The Cheltenham Project, an interdisciplinary approach featuring a…

The author discusses the redistributive nature of the resource equalizer in the 1973 Illinois school finance reform and the political factors related to this redistribution. The result of the equalization plan was that Chicago, suburban, and secondary districts received increases in state aid. (Author/IRT)

The League of Women Voters is a nonprofit organization that, among other functions, helps voters learn more about issues, candidates, registration, and other election procedures. The most visible function performed by the League's Education Fund in recent years has been the sponsorship of the presidential debates. The League maintains that the…

A study investigated whether reliance on television rather than on newspapers affected the way people made voting decisions. Specifically, it focused on whether television reliance was associated with greater candidate image evaluation and newspaper reliance with greater issue importance in the prediction of voter preferences. Telephone interviews…

While the concept of "objective" reporting in the United States has been under attack from critics who demanded more interpretation from the press, a move in the opposite direction seems to be taking place in the Soviet Union, as the concept of journalist as strictly an advocate for the Communist party seems to be giving way to the…

The photographs of William Henry Jackson taken during the 1871 survey of the Yellowstone region of Wyoming and Montana have often been cited as the first specific group of photographs used for successful persuasion. Many historians credit Jackson's photographs as being the most influential factor in persuading Congress to designate the Yellowstone…

Because the institution of performance-based teacher education and certification (PBTE) affects the allocation of resources for teacher education and certification, the movement has become highly political. The political contenders in the struggle to institute PBTE include teachers, administrators, university educators, federal governments, state…

This study examined partisan elections in large urban school districts in Canada. It investigated the extent to which the existence of political parties in a school board election serves to aggregate the educational attitudes and opinions of candidates. Also, it investigated the extent to wbich political parties aggregate differences in the…

Many members of the educational community today believe that political pressures have a major effect on education policy and institutions. This paper discusses four barriers that impede teachers and administrators who must cope with these new political pressures. The four barriers include the problem of meanings and definitions, the lack of…

Metaphor, ethnography, and other qualitative alternatives to the traditional goal-based experimental approach to evaluation have been presented recently. Among the issues associated with the experimental approach are those of preordinate specification and explicit definition. Though the former has received much attention, the latter requires…

A study compared the relative effects and functions of a live versus a televised presentation of a political message. Specifically, the study examined whether (1) the audience for a live political speech differed from the audience for a similar televised speech, (2) a live political speech produced more positive attitude change regarding the…

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern embodied a rich Neo-Populist rhetorical vision that served as a framework for the candidate's campaign rhetoric. The thesis of the paper is that the Neo-Populist vision of McGovern included three particular fantasies, each of which dressed the…

Persuasive mass communication is believed to be more likely to reinforce existing opinions than to change them. This study set out to test this hypothesis in the political area by doing the following: isolating attitudinal patterns in a sample of voters; determining if characteristics of the questionnaire statements were systematically related to…